Great Scott!
Scottish soccer fans have managed to do what two centuries of St. Patrick’s Day parades could not: Drink Boston dry.
The World Cup tourists managed to empty bars and liquor stores over the weekend after celebrating their team’s first group stage victory at Gillette Stadium.
The “Tartan Army” took over Boston’s downtown area on Saturday following Scotland’s 1-0 win over Haiti, with Sam Adams revealing that its Boston Taproom ran out of its famous Boston Lager.
From Thursday to Sunday, Scotland fans effectively drank four times as much Boston Lager as the Taproom normally sells in a four-day holiday stretch, Sam Adams told NBC News, with the company forced to schedule an emergency delivery to keep up.
And the Sam Adams Boston Taproom wasn’t the only bar struggling to keep up with the demand of the thirsty soccer fans.
Noelle Somers, chief operating officer at Hennessy’s Bar, said the sales from the weekend were three times as much as the city’s St. Patrick’s Day festivities.
“We’ve been here for over 30 years, and we’ve never seen anything like it,” she told the Boston Globe.
“We tripled St. Patrick’s Day.”
Peter Zettel, a clerk at Federal Wine & Spirits in Boston’s Financial District, echoed the boom in business and the recalled how the fans even booed one patron who opted to buy water rather than booze.
Zettel added that one of the bar’s refrigerators even broke down because the bartenders were opening it constantly to serve more drinks.
“It met its match against the Scottish,” he told the Globe.
Corona, Budweiser, Coors, Miller, Guinness, Michelob Ultra and Tennent’s Lager, Scotland’s most popular beer, were the favorites that ran out over the weekend, according to the business owners.
Many of the bars and liquor stores are looking to restock quickly as Scotland is scheduled to play against Morocco at Boston Stadium on Friday night.
Afterwards, the English are expected to take over the city for their match up against Ghana next Tuesday.
